


Fingertips and Memories

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Read My Lips [55]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-23 01:43:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7461675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Any, Any, Fingertips have memories / Mine can't forget the curves of your body."</p><p>Rodney and John explore the highs and lows of post-declassification and being away from Atlantis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fingertips and Memories

Rodney had always thought that the best part of the Stargate Program being declassified would be finally standing up in front of his peers - Tunney, Tyson, and Nye being the most pointed examples - and proving that he had been right all along, that he’d been working all along, and what he’d learned had literally changed the universe.  
  
The best part was actually watching John stand up in front of his peers and get the recognition he’d always deserved. There had been more than one article that trickled to Atlantis over the years about where the Casanova of Combinatorics had gone (and seriously, what a stupid nickname, John’s degree wasn’t in combinatorial anything), how his shining star had gone out.  
  
And now here John was, standing on a stage (and wearing a tux, oh my), telling the world what he’d been working on - between fighting off alien invaders and disarming alien booby traps - and practically glowing with pride. Lorne was up there with him, wearing his best-pressed dress blues and interpreting for him, looking like a proud father.  
  
Rodney, Jonathan, Sam, and Zelenka were sitting on the front row of the lecture hall, with flutes of champagne that all of them were ignoring, because when John was that excited, that alive, he was beautiful. Entrancing. Rodney watched John’s hands flow - he’d been John’s practice audience a dozen times over - and wanted to sing John’s praises from the rooftops. Evan was controlling the slideshow, and when it reached the end, there was a pause. Silence.  
  
And then the audience was on its feet, cheering and applauding. John’s eyes drifted closed, and Rodney knew he could feel the wall of sound crash over him, and then John was taking his bows and Evan was speaking John’s thanks, and Rodney couldn’t help himself - he darted up to the edge of the stage as John was descending, and he pulled John into a kiss (which resulted in wolf-whistles).  
  
Better than watching John get swarmed by admiring mathematicians and physicists at the after party was sitting at the back of a classroom and watching John talk to his niece’s classmates about how math was exciting, how math had helped them open the Stargate and explore the universe - and how math had helped him and the others escape from bad guys and stop the bad guys from winning and stop traps from hurting them, like Indiana Jones.  
  
John in dark jeans and a soft sweater, hands flying while Evan, wearing ordinary BDUs, voiced for him, was too adorable. If the kids wanted to have adventures, John told them, they could find adventures everywhere they looked - in math, in science, in English, in making things and fixing things and helping people, because Atlantis had needed all kinds of people to survive and fight and win.  
  
Rodney knew that a lot of this globetrotting, scientists and soldiers answering questions at press junkets and getting awards and talking in schools and smiling for the cameras, was the IOAs way of covering its ass, of coming off as best as possible to the international public about the last decade or so of the SGC. But seeing John hug his nieces after his show-and-tell talk, dancing with John at fancy galas - it was fun.   
  
They couldn’t do this forever, had to get back out there and fight the good fight, be there for Atlantis when she went back to Pegasus.  
  
But some of this, talking to schools - Rodney was speaking at Madison’s school next - and delivering free lectures at community colleges and showing the world how amazing the universe was, it was what the SGC had been about, from the start. The Goa’uld and Ori and Wraith were enemies to be fought, to be dealt with, but the goal was exploration and discovery.

Sometimes, amid the cheers and smiles and flashing cameras, there were the dark memories. Everyone at the SGC had been given a chance to walk through the Stargate Memorial museum before it was open to the public, and seeing those who had been lost along the way was heartbreaking. That night, after yet another fancy gala (and Rodney would never, ever get used to seeing John in a tux, because it was amazing every time), Rodney and John had gone back to John’s apartment (their apartment) and fallen into exhausted sleep.  
  
Rodney had woken in the middle of the night with John’s fingers smoothing up and down his back, rhythmic and soothing, as John whispered in his ear, “You’re safe, you’re on Earth, I’m here,” over and over and over again.  
  
Rodney rolled over and buried his face against John’s neck, trying to calm his racing heart, his shaky breaths. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the gentle sensation of John’s fingertips dancing over his skin, and after a while, everything was all right.  
  
Rodney was almost asleep when John tapped his shoulder. Rodney lifted his head, and John signed, _Are you okay?_  
  
Rodney nodded. The truth was, he’d be okay when they were back on Atlantis.


End file.
